Caught Red-Handed, or as we say in Australia, Sprung Badly.

DNC Chair Terry McAuliffe is today’s victim.

On Audio (transcript) dated August 31st :

HEWITT: Do you believe that John Kerry took a CIA man into Cambodia and kept his hat?

MCAULIFFE: Uh, I have no idea.

HEWITT: You have no idea that he made that story to the Washington Post and that he made it again in 2004 to the LA Times?

MCAULIFFE: If John Kerry said he did something, I’ll take John Kerry at his word.

HEWITT: Do you think that he ran guns to anti-communists in Cambodia which he told the U.S. News & World Report on May of 2000?

MCAULIFFE: I don’t know. You’d have to ask John Kerry about that. I don’t know what he did in Cambodia or didn’t. That was a war 35 years ago. I want to talk about this year.

And on Video, file created 2nd September :

QUESTIONER : Does it bother you that Democrats have nominated a candidate who told a fable about spending Christmas in Cambodia on the floor of the United States Senate?

MCAULIFFE : John Kerry went to Cambodia twice. And you know, I was proud that he was over in Vietnam, at one point as you know he took er some CIA operatives into ah Cambodia. He did a lot more than George Bush ever did for this country, George Bush never got to Vietnam.

As Lileks notes about the case :

In one instance, it’s “I have no idea,” and in the other he’s quite certain what Kerry did. In McAuliffe’s mind, the contradiction doesn’t matter – who’ll notice? He’s compartmentalizing. The Hewitt interview ceased to exist, or matter, the moment it was over. On to the next engagement. But that’s oldthink, brother. If you want an example of how blogging can impact elections, this is a perfect example. Radio host blogs an interview with big-time party strategist. Another blogger uses a camcorder, iMovie and a .mac account to post a snippet of an interview with the same guy on the same subject. A third party draws a connection between the two statements.

And a fourth party, on the other side of the planet, puts it on a website that is read by many news organisations, and will be archived indefinitely.

Note to all politicians, of whatever nationality and whatever political stripe : the world is changing, and to some degree, has already changed. Bloggers are mere ants compared to the mighty carnivores of mass media. Army Ants. Some only eat Elephant, others Donkey, but many will chow down on either. Remember Leiningen, because they’ll fact-check your equids.